ITV Crime Drama “Karen Pirie” Gets Season 2 Renewal

ITV has ordered a second season of World Productions’ Emer Kenny adaptation of Val McDermid’s bestselling cold case novels, Karen Pirie. World Productions is also responsible for the critically acclaimed shows Line of Duty and The Pembrokeshire Murders.

Writing and executive producing the three 120-minute episodes again is Emer Kenny (The Curse, Rescue Me Too), who will be joined by Scottish author Gillian Roger Park (Sneakerhead, The Young Offenders). On ITV1 and ITVX, you can catch the debut of Karen Pirie.

Lauren Lyle (Outlander, Vigil) will reprise her role as the young and courageous Scottish investigator with a fast mouth and dogged thirst for the truth in Season Two, which will be based on A Darker Realm, the second in the internationally bestselling Karen Pirie novels.

During the second season, Karen revisits a 1985 kidnapping case involving a young heiress and her infant son.

Lauren Lyle said “I’m thrilled that we will continue the life of our fearless young detective Karen Pirie, and of course, her bumbag. I’ve known for a while how well the show has gone down behind the scenes so it’s been a joy to see audiences want more. It’s a creative honour to work alongside Emer Kenny with the backbone of Val McDermid’s story, season one was incredibly exciting building an original character we hadn’t seen before. I look forward to getting the gang back together and finally being able to answer the question: ‘Please say there will be a season two?’ with an ‘Oh yes.’

With an initial audience of 6.6 million and a series average of 5.9 million, Karen Pirie was one of ITV’s most watched new dramas of 2017. The show also made ITVX’s top 10 list for dramas.

Karen Pirie has been commissioned for ITV by Head of Drama, Polly Hill and Drama Commissioner Huw Kennair Jones. Huw will oversee production from the channel’s perspective.

Karen Pirie will be executive produced by multi-award winning World Productions CEO, Simon Heath (Save Me, Line of Duty, Anne) and Emer Kenny.

World Productions are the producers of Line of Duty, Bodyguard, Vigil, Save Me and The Pembrokeshire Murders, as well as soon to be aired The Hunt for Raoul Moat and medical thriller, Malpractice, both premiering on ITV1 and streaming on ITVX.